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Don’t Eat Sugar or Carbohydrates for 2 hours After Your Cardio

Don’t Eat Sugar or Carbohydrates For 2 hours After Your Cardio Workout – 60-80% of the fuel you use during your cardio workout is glycogen (sugar) already stored in the muscle. The harder you workout (intensity & heart rate) the more calories you burn and the more glycogen (sugar) you burn. The 2 hours after your workout is over your body will refuel 50% of the calories you just burned during your workout back into your muscles. To make sure you refuel with your body fat in this window you must avoid any sugars or carbohydrates. Your body’s preferred fuel source is sugar so if you drink or eat sugar in this two hour window you’ll refuel your muscles with the sugar instead of your body fat. Yes you will still burn fat for the rest of the day but the #1 key to fat burning is to keep your blood sugar level low to moderate so your muscles are forced to burn your body fat. Every time you eat a high sugar or high glycemic index meal your body is forced to burn some of the sugar in the blood stream before it can go back to burning it’s body fat. Most people stay in this high blood sugar state and end up turning the additional sugar into body fat and in the long run become over-weight and diabetic. This tip always freaks people out but remember the way you eat to lose weight is not the same as an athlete that has to keep their muscle loaded with glycogen. You eat based on your goals. Weight-gain, Weight-loss and Performance all require different and specific plans. Be careful not to sabotage your fat burning with a high sugar smoothie after your cardio workout.

What if you do your cardio first thing in the morning? I wouldn’t be able to wait two hours after my cardio to eat breakfast & since I don’t like to eat carbs beyond 4pm, I like to have oats / bran flakes in the morning i.e. carbs

My question is if I am not eating sugar or carbs as you suggest, what would be the better alternative? I usually workout in the morning doing 45-60 min of elliptical and drink the EAS Protien drink within 30 min of waking up – workout and then eat once I get to work. When I get there – it is usually apple/orange/grapes or 2 cups dry Cheerios. Based on your recommendation, do you have suggestions for better options? Would love any comments or suggestions you may have. Thanks in advance.

First, note that we’re only talking about the long, slow run. Your body starts sugar-burning as your exercise intensity crosses the lactate threshold. (A good indicator of when this happens is when it becomes difficult to carry on a conversation, or when your mouth drops open to start taking in air while you run.) You can gradually increase the level of intensity at which you cross the threshold, so that you can eventually run faster while staying in a fat-burning state. For speedwork and hill workouts, your body will still rely on sugar, and that’s fine, since they’re short, and sugar is great for hard, short runs.

So then why do studies show that people who eat a balanced meal promptly (30 mins-2 hours) after working out lose more weight than people who don’t? I’m trying to lose weight and hear soo many different tips.

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